other than Alpha step, is there any other ways to determine the film thickness?
Dear Divya Alayamany ,
One way to do it is using X-ray reflectivity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_reflectivity
For instance, you can find representative examples at Section III of this paper:
Article Coverage effects on the magnetism of Fe/MgO(001) ultrathin films
XRR, as suggested by Jose-Miguel Garcia-Martin , is a good idea. Additionally: if your film is dielectric, you could try ellipsometry, while if your film is metallic, you can measure the sheet resistance. The latter is especially helpful for thicker metal films when the electron density becomes too high for XRR.
Dear Divya Alayamany , there are several ways that you can take advantage of to measure the film thickness ranging from x-ray absorption spectrophotometry to some microscopic and profilometric techniques such as AFM, SEM, Stylus profilometry, and optical profilometry. Among all these, I highly recommend AFM (atomic force microscopy). To this end, you should remove a small part of the coating to form a step between the coating and the substrate. Then, by measuring the AFM height profile across the step you can obtain the film thickness precisely. Alternatively, you may also measure the film thickness by analyzing the cross-section of your sample using SEM. I have attached a few pictures illustrating these techniques.
Best,
One more idea: depending on your substrate size and film thickness, you could actually just weigh your sample before and after the deposition and divide the difference by the density and area.
Dear @Divya Alayamany
You could use FESEM cross-section view to measure the thickness of films..... also you could calculate through AFM image with Gwyddion software,here I am attaching the thickness estimation by AFM
Article Analysis, Optimization, and Characterization of Magnetic Pho...
presents unconventional tools to provide additional thickness confirmation and data.
Dear@Divya Alayamany
Have a nice time and good day!
Thickness of the films measured by SEM cross-section view. The cross-sectional view of SEM image of Molybdenum Oxide film on glass substrate is attached herewith. In addition, R. Swanepoel's envelope method, Tolansky method are also used to measure the film thickness.
Please read these papers and you will find the details of other methods for the estimation of film thickness:
Article Effect of thickness and post deposition annealing temperatur...
Article Tailoring the crystalline phase and size of the MoO3 quantum...
Article Investigation on dispersion parameters of Molybdenum Oxide t...
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